After Trade Deal, Unhealthy Foods Flowed Into Central America, Dominican Republic

[Judi Lynn]

After Trade Deal, Unhealthy Foods Flowed Into Central America, Dominican Republic
November 14, 2019
By Eurasia Review

How do free trade agreements impact diet and health?

A study on a trade deal between the U.S. and smaller, developing countries in Central America and the Caribbean highlights the need for policymakers to consider this question, says Marion Werner, PhD, associate professor of geography in the University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences and co-director of the Center for Trade, Environment and Development at UB.

Werner led the research, published online this August in the journal Social Science and Medicine. The study analyzes the availability of non-nutritious food in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic in the years after the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) was signed between those countries and the U.S., going into effect in 2006.

The research was a collaboration between Werner and colleagues at UB and the Santo Domingo Institute of Technology (INTEC) in the Dominican Republic.

With regard to the Central American signatories and the Dominican Republic, “Our main finding is that the trade agreement is associated with the importation of much less healthy food,” Werner says. “This includes industrial sweeteners, edible oils high in saturated fats, and processed foods.”

“We’re trying to think about the health effects of trade agreements,” she says. “The U.S. is exporting ever-more processed foods, as well as meat, to the region, while making it harder for farmers there to supply healthy foods for the local market. This situation has an impact on the health of Central Americans, especially low-income folks, as an unhealthy diet can lead to higher rates of obesity and overweight populations.”

More:
https://www.eurasiareview.com/14112019-after-trade-deal-unhealthy-foods-flowed-into-central-america-dominican-republic/

[applegrove]

1. Another way to get rid of pesky anxiety filled people so they won't

make it to medicare. Do South and Central America know this?